The ‘up-close’ or the ‘personal’? The two types of attention and their implications for advertising effectiveness at Nedbank IMC

Attention is often described as the new currency in marketing, but it’s a complex currency to master and deal in – understanding the different facets of attention and how best to maximise on them in your creative campaigns can be tricky. Orlando Wood, Chief Innovation Officer at System1 Group has been doing just this. In partnership with Joe Public, Orlando will be sharing his insights virtually at Nedbank Integrated Marketing Council (IMC) Conference on 15 September.

Laurent Marty, Group Chief Strategic Officer at Joe Public will facilitate a question-and-answer session with Orlando following his virtual presentation. Laurent, a leading strategist with more than 20 years’ experience, has worked on both sides of the creativity coin – as client, and as agency. This has honed his ability of dual thinking: on the one side considering strategic implications beyond the remit of advertising; on the other, acting as a rational advocate for creativity and right-brain thinking among clients.

Orlando’s unique blend of neuroscience, cultural history and advertising research experience has led him to authoring ground breaking publications that examine two different types of attention: Right-brained broad-beam attention and left-brained narrow-beam attention. Each one has different implications that play out in creative messages.

Within this year’s conference theme of UpClose&Personal, Orlando will delve into the challenges of a technology-driven advertising world that has narrowed consumer attention and jeopardised our sense of emotional connection with each other. He’ll explain just how we can regain this connection by focusing on building brands that capture the broad-beam attention of consumers –  and sync with the emotional, curious and exuberant nature of people.

Orlando says, “Memorable brand building must capture the broad-beam attention of our audiences. It’s important for marketers to understand the intent of their creative messaging and to shift our focus accordingly.”

As well as his role as System1 Group’s Chief Innovation Officer, Orlando has authored the best-selling and widely acclaimed books, “Lemon” and “Look out”. Additionally, he is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), having led the organisation’s Creativity and Effectiveness research from 2017 to 2020. In 2022, Orlando co-presented the notion of “triple jeopardy” at The Cannes Lions Festival, describing the three threats to advertising effectiveness, and has just recently returned from the Cannes Lions 70th International Festival of Creativity where he presented the fascinating “Triple Opportunity of Attention” on how to optimise media and capture attention with a capital “A”.

Dale Hefer, Nedbank IMC CEO says, “Orlando’s award-winning work continues to influence thinking and practice in research, marketing and advertising, and will doubtless have a strong impact on Nedbank IMC conference-goers. The Q&A also promises to provide great insights for African marketers and creatives.”

Make sure that you are one of them. But hurry though, tickets for the one-day Nedbank IMC – which will take place in person at Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg on the 15 September 2023 – are almost sold out. The good news is that an online option is also available.